How to Make Lights That Turn on at Night in Minecraft

Last Updated: May 6, 2021

Daylight sensors have been around for a while, but the 1.8 Minecraft update made it easy to transform them into nightlights. This feature is also available on console editions of Minecraft, but not on Minecraft Pocket Edition or the Windows 10 beta edition.^{[1]
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Method 1

Method 1 of 2:

Using a Daylight Sensor

1
Mine nether quartz. The daylight sensor is the easiest way to make a "night light," but you'll need a Nether portal to find the ingredients. Nether quartz ore isn't hard to find once you're in the Nether, but be prepared for difficult combats. Each sensor requires three nether quartz.
- If you're not at this stage of the game yet, try the DIY sensor below.
2
Craft the daylight sensor. Create a daylight sensor with the following ingredients:
- Three glass in the top row
- Three nether quartz in the middle row
- Three wood slabs (not planks) on the bottom row
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3
Deposit the sensor. Place the sensor anywhere you like. It is a half-height block, with a beige upper surface. By default, this sensor will provide power when sunlight hits it. The brighter the sunlight, the stronger the signal.
4
Transform it to detect night instead. There are two ways to change this sensor's behavior:^{[2]
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- Surround it with opaque blocks to make it a night sensor. This will send a power signal only at night, reaching peak strength at midnight (time 17780–18240).
- Or right-click it to make it an inverted sensor (blue surface). This sends out a stronger signal in dark conditions. Unlike the night sensor, this can turn on in the daytime during rainy or stormy weather.
5
Connect it to a redstone lamp. Place a line of redstone from the sensor to a redstone lamp. Depending on which sensor you used, the lamp will either turn on at night, or anytime the sensor is dark.
- To make a redstone lamp, surround a glowstone block with four redstone dust.
- Night sensors (but not inverted sensors) will blink on and off if the lamp they are connected to is exposed to the outside sky or window. Place the lamp in a windowless room to prevent this, or right-click the sensor to invert it.
6
Adjust the timing. These sensors don't just have two states. They will gradually increase and decrease in power over the course of each day/night cycle. To make your lamp turn on earlier in the dusk, shorten the redstone path or insert some redstone repeaters to boost the signal. To make the lamp stay off until later at night, lengthen the redstone path.
- To make a redstone repeater, place redstone dust in the center with a redstone torch on either side, all above three stone blocks.
- Redstone repeaters have a front and a back. Make sure to place it so the signal goes in the right direction.

Method 2

Method 2 of 2:

Example Daylight Sensor Designs

1
Create power lines from a single sensor. You can power any number of redstone lamps from a single daylight sensor. Right-click to invert the sensor, then place a line of redstone dust extending from any side of it. Place short branches of redstone off of this line, with a redstone lamp at the end of each branch. When you reach the limit of the sensor's range (when the redstone is no longer glowing), place a redstone repeater to keep the power line going.
- Keep in mind the power signal will decrease as it brightens. If you have a long line, the lamps farthest away from the sensor will go out first as dawn approaches.
2
Build street lamps. Place three or four fence poles on top of each other to make one tall one, and top it with a redstone lamp. Place redstone dust on top of this lamp, then a daylight sensor on top of the redstone. Surround the redstone with more redstone lamps for extra light, then right-click the sensor to invert it.
3
Make lamps without redstone dust. You can place a redstone lamp directly next to a night sensor to power it directly, with no need for redstone "wires." Bury the sensor two blocks deep in the floor, wall, or ceiling to make your lamps part of the room itself.

Community Q&A

Question

I want to make a nightlight sensor but I can't find an opaque. Where can I find one?

Entity303

Community Answer

An opaque block is any block you can’t see through. It doesn’t refer to one specific block, but many.
Question

Can I just use a red stone lamp and a lever?

OviDovi

Community Answer

You can, but you will need to turn on the lamp every night and turn it off during the day.
Question

Are there any other Minecraft techniques similar to this one?

The_Noble_Jedi

Community Answer

Well, the daylight sensor is the only sure fire way to get a light/door to open at night. You could, however, set a pressure plate inside a one block wide house and spawn a villager outside it. At night he will enter to stay safe and stand on the pressure plate, turning on the light/door.

Warnings

In Minecraft 1.7 and below, daylight sensors cannot be inverted to turn on at night. Instead, send a redstone dust line to a redstone torch to invert the signal, then place the lamp on the other side of the torch.

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